about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, such as body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. with flexpen®... say good night to vial and syringe. ask your doctor about levemir® flexpen. covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay at myflexpen.com. good friday morning, i'm chris jansing. in the midst of a tense -- with no deal to stop the fiscal cliff and multiple bruises battles on the horizon, the ambassador to the u.n. didn't want to risk hurting the president, so she withdrew her name for consideration for secretary of state. >> did you want the job? >> i would have been very honored to serve in that job, just as i'm delighted to do what

i'm doing. but yeah, sure, in my field, how can you not want to serve at the highest possible level? >> susan rice supported him in his election for president. in the beginning, she spent untold hours advising him without pay. the president defended her to the end, she is likely to get another big job in the future when there's an opening and he is meeting with her later today. here's what he said in the local interview with station kcra. >> i hadn't made a decision about who would be my next secretary of state. there's no doubt that susan was qualified. there are people who are qualified as well. hers interest isn't in serving me but more importantly serving the country. i could not be prouder of her, she will continue to be one of the top advisers of my national security team. >> i want to bring in the political reporter for the

candidate. molly, is there any other way she could have played this, do you think? >> i think from the fact that she's talking about it gracefully and accepting it and indeed offered herself to pull out, that she's not kicking and screaming, she's not being forced against her will. but it doesn't seem that the administration didn't really fight her when she pulled her name out of contention. >> madeleine albright said -- do you think it still had the sting for the president and if it did, what are the implications of that in relationship with the republicans? >> i think the president has much bigger fish to fry and fighting looming with the republicans and so i don't really think this becomes a lasting issue. i think that at the end of the

day, the administration probably didn't think it was helpful to have a bruising nomination fight where benghazi and libya was going to be litigated day after day at some future point which would probably consume a lot of television and news time. and i think that if that wasn't the case, if we were just talking about some tough questioning, she wouldn't have withdrawn, the administration would have made it clear, you're not going to withdraw, we don't want that. but there are just to many priorities and tough political battles ahead and a sort of uncertain economy, this was something that probably both sides, but i do think the white house deemed as unnecessary. >> the whole thing started really as sort of this uproar over her on the part of a few republicans with her appearances on the sunday shows. and brian williams asked susan rice about that. >> why was it you what sunday morning, of all the people in government, why the u.s.

ambassador to the united nations answering questions about the attack on benghazi. >> it wasn'ta unusual, i have done sunday shows many times in the past. secretary clinton had originally been asked by most of the networks to go on. she had had an incredibly grueling week dealing with the protests around the middle east and north africa that it envol lopped our embassy. she consoled the whole state department and greet the families and the boths. she declined to do it. and i was asked by the who is if i would do it, as the next senior american diplomat. >> would it have been a whole different thing if hillary clinton had done those shows that day or would there still have been a fight over susan rice? >> we can't know, it's impossible to know if something else would have come up and she would have found herself answering for this controversy in other ways. i do think that we saw when

susan rice went to capitol hill and attempted to make peace, not only with the senators who seemed set against her like john mccain, but senator who is seemed more open to considering her like susan collins, that sort of diplomatic effort failed. she was not able to smooth things over with them and i think that was regarded by the administration as a bad sign for any potential nomination fight as well. >> all indications are david to follow up on what we were talking about that the white house and the president are upset over susan rice, susan cutter is upset about the way that susan rice was treated. one article described it as the -- while this does remove one fight in the middle of the other fight, are these lingering feelings likely to get in the way of what has to happen now? >> i don't think so, i think there's enough going on to stir people up like that, i think

this is really just a drop in the bucket. i think people are upset in the white house on the democratic side about how susan rice was treated. but if she's going to be the next secretary of state, she can't argue that, look, i just went on the sunday shows and said what people told me to say. either you're in the loop and you're a senior part of the team who's responsible for what you're saying or you're not. this was the consequence of something that didn't go well. it may not ultimately be her fault, but you can't have it both ways and for a position like secretary of state, she would have been subjected to pretty tough questioning anyway. but this became a politically untenable situation for the white house. but they're going to move on and i firmly believe that whatever tension is going to continue to exist, which we know it will between republicans on the hill and the white house, democrats and republicans on the hill, it's going to be about far bigger things than this, that whoever's nominated for secretary of state is going to face a lot of tough questions about administration policy, but will most likely ultimately be

concerned relatively easily, but because of the role she played in the benghazi situation, this was just not going to be the case for her. she might have squeaked in, but it was going to be rough. >> i want to bring in congressman tom cole, a republican from oklahoma. good to see you again, congressman, good morning. what happened with susan rice, do you think that it is adding to, alleviating some of the tension that clearly is going on between some democrats and republicans over the fiscal cliff or has no impact at all? >> frankly, obviously i don't know if it was susan rice's decision or the administration's decision, but i think she was going to have a pretty rough and tough nomination process, confirmation process, and that's a fight the president doesn't need right now, it would have been a distraction. >> duds he get credit for that? duds she get credit for that? okay there,'s a concession that's been made here.

>> i'm sure that the president didn't want to make this move or have this made. but again, you can only fight so many battles. he's got a lot of other fightses that are coming. this is one he didn't need, he needs and i think the country would be best served by someone that's a unifying figure and can side step some of these situations. it's a smart and a very clear eyed decision by the white house. >> let me tell you what the president had to say about the ongoing fiscal cliff negotiations in an interview with a local station. think speaker boehner has a contentious caucus, as his caucus is tough on him, sometimes he doesn't want to look like he's giving in to me somehow because that night hurt him in his own caucus. is the hard right of your own party still resistant to revenue at all, raising taxes on the rich? >> remember, the revenue, the taxes go up attend of the month. and that's current law, that's not something that by digging in and holding on we can pre-vent.

if we could, we certainly would u barks because none of us favor tax increases period. but i think speaker leads this caucus, he's not led by this caucus, and this caucus supports him tremendously. he's in a very strong position right now, and people think he led us through a very contentious election and they think back to some of the tough decisions he made in the negotiations and the debt ceiling negotiations, i think he's been vindicated in those decisions. he's got a line on the republican proposal, so i think actually the speaker's negotiating from a position of strength, but there are limits, obviously, just given the fact that taxes are headed up for most americans at tent of the month. so there's also some leverage only the democratic side. >> there's also a report that says there is no conclusive evidence between tax cuts and economic expansion.

>> you can find plenty of economists that would quarrel and disagree with that and there's about as many disagreements on these kinds of things as there are congressmen. but nobody elects republicans to raise taxes. it's just something that most republicans instinctively don't want to do. i never met one who actual ran for office who said i'm running in order to raise taxes. you would be surprise issed if republicans were anything other than totally resistant to this. on the other hand i have never heard of democrats who want to cut spending. that's the issue here. we haven't heard anything from the president in terms of spending cuts and entitlement reform. >> molly, the president and john boehner met at the white house yesterday, we heard that the meeting was, i think that the word that was used was frank, and again the lines of communications remain open, that's the statement that they put out as they did last time. except that john boehner is going back to ohio this weekend. is that a bad sign? is that unexpected?

what's going on? >> we didn't know much -- i think literally one word out of that conversation was the word frank. it's a good sign that they're talking, i don't think boehner is taking his toys and going home. the congressman cole has been saying this for a couple of weeks now, republicans are coming around to this idea that they're going to have to give on those rates. they are going to have to have something in return if there's going to be a deal. but on the other hand, i think speaker boehner is going to have the votes to get it through. >> obviously, david, we're now 18 days away, you could argue even less, most people are back in their districts, which is boehner among them. i thought it was interesting that senator olympia snow told "the washington post" that it's bizarre, it's truly bizarre, there's no sense of urgency. do you sense any concern by

members of congress about the optics of all this? i mean i can just say, anecdotally that people say, i don't understand, why aren't they getting this done? why is the speaker going home? why are members of congress going home? and you have some members of congress complaining they're totally out of the loop nymph. >> until there's a frame work of a deal being discussed, there's no order of business. i would say two things, number one, there is concern, i talked to members this week who are aware that everybody's taxes could go up on january 1, will go up if nothing's done and that dews trouble them. but to your question of urgency, i don't sense a whole lot of urgency because there is not yet a fear that so-called going over the cliff, heading into january without a deal is going to cause some immediate fiscal calamity that's going to send the economy into a tail spin. i think if people believed that

would happen rather immediately, there might be more urgency. so people still believe on both sides of the aisle that a bad deal is worse than no deal. and nobody wants to do that. >> is there any urgency at all? >> no, but this is congress, they do don't anything until their backs are against the wall. they don't do anything until the deadline is right from front of their faces and strikes the fear of god in them. so nobody's surprised, and frankly i'm a procrastinator too, i don't do anything until the deadline is staring me in the face. there is a big development to tell you about coming out of the syrian crisis. the u.s. is sending missiles and troops to turkey to help with defense. leon panetta signed an order today to send two patriot missile batteries and four u.s. troops -- the patriots are capable of shooting down short range missiles. nato voted for that deployment last week.

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amid all the talk of fairness or unfairness concerning susan rice, it remains a critical time for president obama on the international front. the u.s. is sending patriot air missiles and 400 troops to turkey as a possible defense from syria. and a senior official said syria's president bashar assad is losing control. and north korea is celebrating it's most controversial rocket launch. i want to start by asking you about susan rice because you did release a statement, she's meeting with the president today, your statement said the president and country will be

denied the opportunity to have one of the nation's most capable ambassadors serve as secretary of state. but just a few minutes ago, your colleague tom cole had this to say. >> the country would be best to find somebody who can be a unifying figure. it's unfortunate for the individuals involved but it's a smart and very clear eyed decision by the white house. >> was susan rice too divisive of figure, congressman? >> i don't think so. she's a very accomplished public servant and i think the attacks on her were unfounded and unjustified. gop lawmakers are the ones who made this distraction to begin with, relying on a trumped up attack on her for relying on the

cia and following her best judgment. it shows what a difficult town washington can be when someone performing their job with great integrity is attacked in this i think completely unjustified matter. >> should the administration have fought harder for susan rice? that's a decision for the president to make, i don't know if ambassador rice was the choice he wanted, if she was the choice for him, he should have fought for her if he wanted her. >> let me ask you some of the things that this new secretary of state will face. as we said the u.s. is sending patriot air defense missiles and 400 troops to syria. the goal clearly is to show that they're going to make a commitment to deter a syrian attack. >> i think so and hope so.

i can understand what why turkey would be very concerned and we have seen indications that syria has prepared in some respects these chemical weapons that is deeply disturbing and we have also seen that the mean sheen guns would be fired against the syrian people themselves, so if you have a government that's going to file -- chemical weapons and and as a neighboring -- regime you got to think, if they're willing to take the steps against their own people. i think it was a prudent step to take and i hope that she knows that any step it takes, it's chemical weapons against their own people or others would be met with a severest of consequences. do you believe his role is almost over? >> well, he's certainly lost

control, but this week, we're only stating the obvious. but they can't help but see the deterioration in the position of the assad they're having to resort to more dire measures. it's pretty clear that the assad regime i think will not survive, but weather it will fall in a week or month, or whether we can soldier on for a year, that's very hard to predict. but i think we are definitely beyond the point now where from's any possibility of survival of this regime. >> also making news after launching that rocket on wednesday, defying international warnings. willing to defy the international community, what do you see, congressman, as the risk of that for the, not just international community, but for the u.s. as well. >> not only is this missile

technology and their nuclear technology a problem and a threat to the north koreans. we have to be concerned about them assisting the iranians or others in this work which is deeply disturbing, we need china's help, we need china's cooperation. and perhaps the only way that we can get china to cooperate that china understands that the north korean threat escalates a military presence in the region and that's something that china desperately doesn't want to see. but we have to make it clear that as north korea continues to capos a risk to us and a greater risk to us with missiles that could possiblily hit our shores. and that puts significant pressure on china in terms of its fuel supplies to north korea and other leverage that they can act in a way they really need to and they can act responsibly.

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unfortunately most of the board members found out that unicef is the name of my yacht. >> former government r governor nicky haley is -- demint told a loll tv station he expecting haley will make her choice today. just when you think washington is dysfunctional, this may make you feel better, ukraine's new parliament got into an all-out brawl. there's pension between the russian speaking east and ukrainian speaking west. head lock. ow. in washington, perhaps poetry will help the two sides come to a deal on the fiscal cliff. for example this one from senator blumenthal's communications director. people are talking, officials behind closed doors, sorry, no updates. or how about, obama boehner, one

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with susan rice now out of the picture, there is a domino effect to take over key administration positions. democratic senator john kerry and former republican senator chuck hagel, just two of the people who used to be in for a move. joining me now is -- assuming we're all -- john kerry is a lock, will he face any opposition at all? >> it's the president's call in terms of which direction he decides to go. senator kerry i would say is clearly the front-runner, i would say he's got qualifications, he's got support. >> he's going to get it, chris, isn't he? >> i would think so, i mean who knows? if he's nominated, the confirmation process will be relatively easy. he will face tough questions as

they all do. the senator's club is a bit of a club and i have a feeling that they'll be a little bit more act come lating, unfairly i would say, because i think ambassador rice would be a good secretary of state. and she's been unfairly pushed aside and k50i7b of taking the target of all this criticism, the republicans have been just been focused on. but it is what it is at this point. >> what happens if expected indeed john kerry is nominated by the president. there's a report out there that duvall patrick has approached vicki kennedy about replacing senator kennedy, she is the widow of senator ted kennedy. what's your reaction to that? >> it would be a temporary appointment, because under the constitution, the governor typicall typically--each state can make up its own mind but the governor typically appoints, i don't know what massachusetts law is that you serve until the next general election. but it could be that scott gets back in and tries for that seat.

but if we can go back to ambassador rice, she had a chance to fix this, they sent her up to the hill at the end of september so go make nice with mccain and graham specifically. as it was reported, a 75-minute meeting with susan collins, the moderate republican from maine, and she was really the tipping point, senator collins. collins came out tremendously unimpressed with whatever went on in that meting and i think at that point the dye was cast for ambassador rice. >> it's expected that susan rice will get another big job at some point, there's talk about national security adviser if tom donovan leaves. and do you think that the gop could end up regretting susan rice taking her name out of

contention? >> i don't think this was so much about ambassador rice, this was political, this was about benghazi, this is about the republicans trying to focus on something and making hay out of it. in terms of ambassador rice going up to the hill and making nice with senator mccain. moses couldn't play nice with senator mccain. if he gets it in his head that he doesn't like you, there's nothing going to change his mind. >> the point i was making was that nobody was going to change their mind based upon what senator mccain said or didn't say. >> the issue was you -- >> you judge a candidate -- if you can't no shut up, then you ought to be ambassador to the u.n. >> the point is you need to judge someone on their merits, not make it political and that's what senator mccain did. >> we don't know what went on in the meeting with senator collins. he was the person that the white house i think was pointing to try to get the tide changed or

at least to help break a filibuster, if that's what it came to, ambassador rice failed in convincing senator collins. mccain was out of it at that point. >> let me ask you about this other talk, and we're going to play nice now. that a former republican senator chuck hagel could become the next defense secretary. what do you think, chris, how would democrats feel about that scenario? >> i think it would be a very interesting pick, senator hagel is tremendously respected on both sides. i think at the end of his political career as senator of nebraska, i think he rubbed some of the republicans a little bit wrong. in some circles. he knows the armed services issues, he knows the defense issues very well. i think he would be a very good pick and a very strong one, i don't see any kind of opposition to him if he's nominated. >> and rich, would it help to mend some fences some of the hard feelings?

>> i agree with chris here, i think what the president may be looking for is somebody who can run the pentagon, knowing what the issues are on the hill, because the pentagon has to shrink, we all agree on that, and how they go about it and how they do is it very complicated. because if a defense contractor has a contract to make paper clips for the pentagon, they get those made in about 47 different states, they figure out how to do that. so somebody like hagel who can maneuver through that plus has the history of being on the armed services committee. they're not looking for a battlefield commander, they're looking for somebody to be able to run the business side of it. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. we're following breaking news right now, state police are responding to a report of a school shooting in newtown, connecticut. they say it happened at sandy hook elementary just before 10:00 this morning, no word on any injuries. a shop across the street, someone who works there tells nbc news that three ambulances responded but they have already left the area.

a child care center next door has locked down the building. we will keep you posted on this developing story out of newtown, connecticut. meantime, a california judge is being publicly admonished for saying that a rape victim doesn't put up a fight during her assault. superior court judge made those comments during the sentencing in 2008. he also said if someone didn't want sex, quote, the body will not permit that to happen. the council on jewish performance saying that the remarks reflected outdated bias and insensitive views about pub -- the mall where three people were involved in a shooting incident is reopening. meantime the woman who raised gunman jacob roberts says she is deft v devastated and has no

idea why it happened. >> never could i imagine him being a part of something like this. >> let me go to a wvit with breaking news about that school shoot issing. let's listen in. >> respond in an emergent fashion. >> can you give us an idea of what you're calling a platoon of troopers, and it's a fairly substantial department there in newtown, are we talking about dozens of police officers on scene at this point. >> you're talking about many troopers and officers on that team right now and i would suspect that the minute we can from that scene, we'll give you a confirmation and update as quickly as we possibly can from that scene. we will hold a press conference from that location. >> thank you for the latest information, this is obviously a situation that is changing by

the moment. here is what we know right now. the breaking news is out of newtown, the entire public school district is in lockdown at this hour. because of a police investigation and emergency response both state and local police to sandy hook elementary school. lieutenant paul vance of the connecticut state police confirms that police have entered the school and have begun to evacuation students and administrators at sandy hook elementary. >> there's no concrete information yet about any injuries, but we do know that it is an active scene with state and local police on the ground there, they are working tactfully is what we're told by lieutenant vance. >> with this kind of situation and with the explosion of social media, we're getting a lot of information into our newsroom

that we need to independently confirm before we report to you. so there are a lot of rumors out there about what's going on here. so the reason we put lieutenant vance on the line is to get a true view of what's going on there at that school right now. we have learned that a reverse 911 call went out from the newtown public schools, to at least the parents of sandy hook elementary school, if not the entire district, went out to parents apprising them of what's going on at this moment. but because it's so new and so fresh, we want to make sure that police give us the proper information, we don't want to alarm anyone unnecessarily about this. but it is a serious situation out there. >> it is changing by the moment what's going on. we're going to do our best to get the information out to parents who are obviously very concerned. and lieutenant vance said there is a staging area for teachers and for officials. but really, it's probably a chaotic scene there, so the best thing is for parents to just

stay informed and really act cautio cautiously. >> no question. let's take you back to the beginning of this. lieutenant paul vance of the connecticut state police just confirmed that state police received a call for assistance at 9:41. we can only assume that local police responded shortly before that and realized it was a situation that required assistance from the state police. so it happened sometime in the 9:00 hour, this original emergency situation at sandy hook school on dickenson drive in the sandy hook section of newtown. if you're familiar with the area, you're looking at a google map's view, a satellite picture of the building. can we bring up the road view just to give people an idea of where this is? this is just off of interstate 84 in the sandy hook section of newtown. >> we're going to continue to follow this breaking news story out of newtown, connecticut where there are shots fired at an elementary school. we are keeping our eye on it. we'll take a quick break and be

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since susan rice took herself out of the running for secretary of state, her supporters have cried foul, her critics believe they have a victory. and this question is being asked anew. will the president's cabinet have the diversity once promised? our chief foreign affairs important andrea mitchell. >> maybe it's janet napolitano moving over to attorney general, but among those four top posts, you've got to have more women, you've got to have more diversity. >> in washington, marsha greenberger, founder and co-president of the national women's law center. good morning. >> the daily beast lloyd grove suggested their personality played a role in all of this. here's what he wrote, in the

rough and tumble political combat, personality trumps polity. she is frequently described in the press with such adjective as brusque, aggressive and undiplomatic in the extreme. marsha, if susan rice were a man, do you think it's possible that the outcome could have been different? do you see any gender bias in this operation? >> i can surely tell you we would not be hearing those kind of criticisms. to begin with, i think the attack on her was clearly so overblown and really without foundation, and then to add insult to injury, this kind of rationale, when the original statements that she made on talk shows was patently absurd, really is angering because the idea that women are too brusque

or they're to too aggressive is such a drastic put down on questioning the idea that she's not smart. these are the things that drive women crazy and there's been study after study about women in the corporate setting and in every setting, they're damned if they do, they're damned if they don't, if they don't put themselves forward, they're pushovers, they're too wreak, they're not serious. >> could there be any kind of backlash, michael, could some of the republicans have already had a problem with minorities and women, if we look at the statistics from the last election, if we could just re-enforce those stereotypes. >> i think that's the thing that the republicans in the senate especially who would have to vote on the nomination would clearly have had to take into consideration, that would have been part of the political calculus from the president, can

you put an african-american woman forward and does that make it more difficult is that calculation about a backlash make it more difficult for republican senators to oppose her, clearly the president, the white house felt that no matter what pressure they might feel, the opposition was still going to be very strong going forward. >> michael, marsha, thanks for coming on. we have this breaking news coming out of connecticut. again, a report of a school shooting, wti has a parent on the phone, let's listen. >> everything is fine with your daughter, if you would keep in contact with us as you find ow more information. >> i absolutely will, i appreciate it. >> we want to get accurate information out to people across the state. that was a parent at sandy hook elementary school who at a stroke of luck wasn't there this morning because of a doctor's

appointme appointment. >> let's set the stage and go through this. a call came into state police at 9:41, 12 dickenson drive in newtown. something about that call, police protocol went into effect and a platoon, what's being described to us by lieutenant paul vance of connecticut state police, a platoon of the teachers and the students were evacuated, i believe there's also a staging area that's been set up near the school. >> liz, what are you seeing right there at the school? >> hi, brad, we're here on dickenson drive, right on the streets, i have never seen anything like this, the line of cars is endless. parents have been running down the street trying to get to their children. that staging area you guys spoke

about, that triage area is set up behind sandy hooks fire department. i can see that right now. dozens of ambulances back there, as far as we know, no one's being treated from what i can see at my vantage point, but it looks like they're all standing by. i'm sure you can hear some of the ambulances in the background. it's kind of chaotic where we are right now. a lot of parents are trying to get answers. they're getting as close as they can. >> liz, how far away is that triage area, that staging area that you described, how far away is that actual school? >> i want to say that school from the map, looks to be about a third of a mile away from where we are right now. that's where lots of parents are gathering, i'm telling you what i see right now. parents on cell phones trying to get in touch with their kids. police officers trying to

maintain order here and the fire departments from every single town, i can see lots of people responding to the scene right now, i don't see any children, i don't see any teachers. you can't get too close to the school right now, but we're set up at that triage unit waiting to see what unfolds here, but still a very active scene here in newtown. >> liz, we are looking at live pictures right now, i don't think you realize that, but we have pictures from the scene, i think it might be your partner on this assignment. we can see the mass of cars and people, overhead, it looks like there's some sort of helicopter overhead, i'm not sure if there's a news helicopter or a police helicopter. is there a sense that those ambulances are coming and going from the scene? or are they staying? that's obviously key to the situation? >> reporter: yeah, i honestly can't see the school from where we are right now, we just parked our cars and ran as close as we

could to this triage unit. but the ambulances are also parked right here behind the fire department, it looks like right now they're all just standing by. but those pictures that you saw earlier did show that chopper overhead. it seems like there's the possibility that they're still looking for one of the shooters. that has not been confirmed by police yet. but a lot of parents here, just kind of waiting, standing by, trying to get answers. but we can't see the school from where we are right now, i don't see any ambulances coming from the school's direction. a lot of them just standing by waiting to possibly treat any kids or teacher who is might need them. >> and liz, the kids there at the school, is anyone coming out to talk to the parents? are the parents getting any information? i can only imagine what is the mood when it comes to the parents? is it orderly or is it more

chaot chaotic? >> reporter: no, a lot of parents are holding their heads, it's only been a couple of minutes since they have been on the scene here. everybody on their phone, just trying to get in touch with whoever they can. but you guys saw that maze of cars, i mean the parents are understandably rushed over here not knowing whether their kids were all right. lots of parents embracing each other, trying to support one another. most of them just gathering at the fire department right now. there's lots of ambulances standing by for anyone who could potentially have been hurt in what we think of this school shooting. >> just to confirm, liz, we see people running around in that area. i can presume they looked like they would be parents in terms of their age and the way they're dressed, they're not first responders, and yet you don't see any children s there a sense that the parents have not been able to make contact with their children? this happened more than an hour

ago. >> reporter: yeah, it does sound like that because as shirley said the entire district is on lockdown right now. i see a couple of little children, but they don't look like they would be kindergartners, first, second, or third graders. it seems that everyone is standing by on this waiting game right now. it's not a pretty sight to see out here. because this is such a rush among the police officers and the parents obviously just want some answers. you did hear a reverse 911 call went out to the parents from the school. but again, in terms of getting in touch with the students, actually physically holding them, seeing how they're doing, it seems to me that all of them are still on lockdown inside that school. >> it must be such an awful thing for these parents. brad, you are a parent, i can only imagine what these moms and dads are going through, with such young children as well. >> it's the worst-case scenario for a parent is that unknown situation. if in fact these parents have been able to make any contact

with their kids and they really don't know what's going on, i have a pit in my stomach right now and i'm 50 miles away from the scene. so the parents there if they're not getting as much information as they need. the information you need is to see your child find to groob them and give them a hug. what we have been told by lieutenant vance, and i don't know if you're seeing any evidence of this, he told us that the troopers when they arrived onscene around 9:45, immediately entered sandy hook elementary school and started evacuating students and staff and administrators, we have to presume that at this point the students are out of the school. i just don't understand why the students aren't with their parents yet. >> reporter: what i can tell you is that it's kind of a maze of cars and the police have them away from that school right now, it seems that police want to keep people away from there as they secure is scene. obviously they evacuated those kids for a reason. and the parents are all at this

staging area, they're trying to keep it as orderly as possible, rather than having people running around the different neighborhoods here, but they're close, tight streets, not so easy to navigate for the ambulances that are trying to get through here. but again, lots of parents, i see here without children waiting to sort of hear what's going on, see their kids, it sounds like they're trying to keep things as orderly as possible. keep everybody here and calm, but that's not an easy thing for police so far. >> an active investigation is under way, what signs of that do you see? >> i did see what looks like the s.w.a.t. team here with some big weapons walking up towards the area of the school, i can also tell you that there's lots of local departments here as well. getting what they need to refurbish that police department's -- we have a lot of people directing the traffic

here as well, trying to make sure that the streets are as orderly as possible, but we want to make sure that we get on with you guys live. when i hang up i can show you some live pictures and we'll do a live report in just a few minutes. >> wvit reporter describing a not surprisingly chaotic scene after there were reports of element industry school in newtown, connecticut, shots fired, but we don't know what happened inside. some reports off of social media, which we have not been able to confirm yet. she talked about parents without kids, not surprising, that parents would rush to the scene. she also talked about little kids who looked like they were younger than elementary. i can tell you that next door to that preschool called the adventure school, so very young

children that she may have seen may not have been indeed from the elementary school, but from the preschool next door, but also s.w.a.t. teams on the scene, emergency vehicles on the scene. let's bring in clint vanzant, our fbi profiler. the police who would be called in, what would be the first thing they would do? >> it seems like we just did this last week and the reality is we did at the shopping mall in oregon and here we go one more time. in these school shootings, once again, we have learned that children cannot wait, to wait for the s.w.a.t. team to do a tactical -- the first two or three responding officers, local police, deputy sheriffs, they go ahead and make a tactical entry and their whole job is to penetrate into the building and go to the shoote